Coccidiosis in goats: causes and symptoms, treatment and prevention

Coccidiosis (eimeriosis) is an infectious disease that affects mammals and humans, caused by primitive microorganisms of the order Coccidia, family Eimeria. The infection captures the epithelial lining of the intestines, kidneys, liver, and other soft internal organs, causing severe malnutrition and reduced productivity in small cattle. In the absence of treatment for coccidiosis in goats, a massive loss of livestock occurs.

Causes of coccidiosis in kids

Favorable conditions for the active reproduction of pathogenic microorganisms are high humidity and coolness. Infection of goats and sheep occurs mainly when grazing on a damp pasture located in a lowland, in a floodplain or swampy area.The risk of an outbreak of coccidiosis is increased when goats are kept in damp and dark conditions, when animals pick up food from damp and dirty floors, and when water is used from stagnant water to drink.

The susceptibility of goats to coccidiosis increases with a decrease in immunity due to stress, poor nutrition, castration, transportation. Cases of disease outbreaks increase on rainy and chilly summer days, and during the spring transition from stall keeping to grazing on pastures. Basement rodents, two-winged insects, birds can become distributors of coccidia.

Kids and lambs are infected from mothers in which pathogens multiply on the udder. More than 12 types of coccidia become the causative agents of coccidiosis in goats. Mixed infection prevails, when several types of microbes attack the animal's body at once, but Eimeria faurei and Eimeria arloigni are most often detected in goats.

An animal accidentally swallows parasite oocysts.In the intestine, oocysts release sporozoites, which attach to the epithelial intestinal integument or, once in the vascular bed, are carried with the blood throughout the body, deposited in the tissues of the liver, kidneys, and other soft organs. There, by asexual division, they pass into a mobile form of existence - merozoites.

Destroying epithelial tissues, merozoites repeatedly divide. Then there is gametogony - the formation of female and male cells. Sex cells fuse to form oocysts. With feces, oocysts leave the intestines of the host to become the causative agent of the disease.

When goats are crowded, infection becomes widespread. Severe coccidiosis occurs mainly in 6-month-old kids and lambs. Adults are carriers of the infection.

Symptoms of the disease

The incubation stage lasts at least a week, a maximum of a month. There is an acute, subacute and chronic course of the disease.Coccidia affect the epithelial integument along the entire length of the small intestine. In the foci of parasitic lesions, inflammation occurs, leading to severe tissue degeneration.

In sick goats, the concentration of hemoglobin decreases, the number of normoblasts increases, basophilic puncture of red blood cells increases, hypochromic anemia develops, red blood cells change shape and size - signs of poisoning of the body with decay products. The functioning of the circulatory system, the digestive tract is disrupted.

In adult goats and sheep, a 23-25% lag in weight gain is detected, in lambs - by 15%, in kids - by 45-47%. Milk yield is reduced by 35%. In an acute form, coccidiosis occurs in kids and lambs up to a year. Symptoms are pronounced, mortality is 10-25%, a sick animal dies after 2-10 days from infection.

Symptoms of acute coccidiosis:

• weight loss, anemia, blanching of mucous membranes;
• exhaustion, powerlessness, inability to stand;
• diarrhea, disruption of the digestive system, refusal to eat;
• body temperature 40-41 °C;
• mucus and blood inclusions in feces;
• cramps of the cervical and femoral muscles;
• conjunctivitis, rhinitis;
• decrease in red blood cells up to 5 million in 1 mm^3;
• drop in hemoglobin concentration to 35%.

Acute coccidiosis can become subacute or chronic. A chronic course with vague symptoms is observed in goats up to 2 years of age. 40-70% of infected individuals die.

Chronic symptoms:

• anemia, thinness;
• temporary rise to 40°C for a short time;
• diarrhea with mucus and blood spots;
• on the 8-10th day from infection, the appearance of small gray warts on the face and ears (not all goats).

Diagnostic rules

The veterinarian diagnoses coccidiosis using a set of methods. When making a diagnosis, the result of a laboratory study of goat feces, analysis of scraped tissues of internal organs is taken into account. Symptoms of coccidiosis in goats are similar to those of pasteurellosis, paratyphoid, enterocolitis, but coccidia oocysts found in the feces clearly indicate the disease.

Intestinal tissue scraping is done from dead goats. In an animal that died of coccidiosis:

• extreme exhaustion;
• Anal area stained with liquid feces;
• The mucous membranes of the small intestine are inflamed over the entire surface;
• blood nodules and streaks are visible in some parts of the internal intestinal walls, gray or gray-yellow balls the size of a millet grain are enlarged intestinal villi, coccidia actively multiply in them.

Treatments

Infected animals are isolated. For therapy use:

• ichthyol solution;
• "Akrikhin" + "Plasmocide";
• "Phenothiazine";
• "Albargin";
• Norsulfazol;
• "Hexachloran".

Treatment is carried out by any of the listed drugs or a complex, according to a strictly established scheme.To speed up the recovery of goats, it is recommended to increase the portion of concentrates in the diet, use vitamin supplements. Ichthyol 15% aqueous solution is given to kids and lambs 2-5 months of age, 60-80 ml once a day for 3 days. Then they make a 3-day pause, after which two more similar courses of administration follow.

"Akrikhin" is given for 5 days, followed by a week-long pause, after which the course is repeated. On the 1st day of each course, the daily dose is 4 tablets per 0.5 l of water 2 times a day. On the 2nd-4th day - 2 tablets 2 times a day. For a course, one 3-month-old kid takes 48 tablets. The reception of the Akrikhin + Plasmocide complex is similar. Tablets dissolved in 50 ml of water are given orally to goats. The course requires 48 tablets ("Akrikhin" - 4.8 g, "Plasmocid" - 1 g).

"Norsulfazol" give 5 mg per 1 kg of body weight 3 times a day for 3 days. After a 3-day pause, the therapy is repeated 2 more times. "Hexachloran" powder 10% is given to 2-3-month-old kids at 200 mg per 1 kg of body weight for 3 days.

Complex "Ichthyol" + "Phenothiazine" + "Albargin" is used to treat one-year-old goats. On the 1st day, an ichthyol solution is shown (4 g of the substance per 150 ml of water), on the 2nd - Albargin (3 g), on the 3rd - Phenothiazine (10 g).

Prevention of coccidiosis

To reduce the chance of goats becoming infected with coccidiosis, the following preventive measures are observed:

1. Do not graze cattle in the lowlands, wetlands.
2. Do not allow animals to drink from a puddle, swamp, overgrown pond.
3. Practice paddock grazing, change plots every 10 days.
4. Make a smooth transition from winter to spring maintenance.
5. Food is placed in the feeders, not on the floor.
6. Keeping the barn clean. Manure is collected in a timely manner, sent to storage.

Ill goats do not develop immunity to coccidiosis, animals remain carriers of the infection for a long time, they are able to infect neighbors in the barn. These goats are kept in isolation, more thorough disinfection is used.

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